Kennedy construction to end a weekend earlier than planned

Share Update:

Kennedy construction to end a weekend earlier than planned

Kennedy construction project and it centers around the deconstruction of the old Ohio Ontario Interchange Ramp.

According to IDOT work is ahead of schedule and some ramps will reopen later tonight. Also the overall project was expected to be three weekends is now reduced to two weekends.

As of early evening, traffic was moving pretty good northbound. Southbound was definitely a different story as cars were being forced off at the Ohio Street exit then to an alternate route and then back on Kennedy sometime after that.

What IDOT is doing is taking the old ramp tearing it down putting the debris into trucks and hauling it away.

This will be going on this weekend and next in highly choreographed 55-hour work periods.

The old bridge was considered structurally unsafe.

To be sure for drivers navigating the city during the weekend it’s challenging enough to begin with and then you throw this in and blues fest and not too far from here is Taste of Randolph Street Fest. One vendor Jean Claude who is the owner of a French restaurant says he thinks the work on the Kennedy will have an effect on sales. Two hundred and sixty thousand drivers on average use the Kennedy on a weekend day, so alternate routes are suggested.

Lakeshore Dr. and Western Avenue are just a couple of options and of course there is always public transportation bus, Metra, the red and brown lines.